[SPOILERS] Yuris125 tries to win a game of Civ5 before it fades away

[T-hawk]

This is exciting, keep reporting. Hey, I think the CS quest is a reward for a well-done effort if you hold this off.

[yuris125]

Glad you're finding it interesting; I'm finding it stressful

So Nic decided to just move in, using instaheal on the wounded Archer




With Spear in the jungle, there's no way to kill it right now. The only unit I can kill is the Archer next to the city

For my attacks, the city always shoots first, then I need to swap the Warrior and the Archer, so that both get and attack. Then I have a choice of which unit should I attack first with. It's tempting to attack with the Warrior first, so that it doesn't end up exposed to three Archer shots. The problem is, in this case Nic has pretty much no reason not to use the three shots at the city and guaranteed take it. Exposing the Warrior is sad, but he will make sure Nic has to spend at least some of Archer shots on it, probably all of them, and blocks the only way he has to attack the city this turn

So that's what I did




The big question now is, will 3 Archer shots be enough to kill the Warrior? If not, Nic may want to finish it off with the Spear, thus moving it in range of the Archer in addition to the city attack

I'm not feeling good about this any more. But there's still hope. One thing of note is that I believe Nic hasn't seen my Archer yet (I think Civ5 handles production for everyone in between turns, so it wasn't there during Nic's turn, and unlike Civ4, there are no notifications which show which units attacked which of his units). He may make a mistake because of it

(there's also a possibility Nic attacks the Warrior with the Spear, then finishes it off with Archers and gets a shot or two at the city. No idea if it's a better option. Let him figure it out :P )

Still delaying the third city. The 8% combat penalty I would get from unhappiness may be the difference between how many shots Nic needs to kill the Warrior. I will finish the silk plantation in 2 turns, and can found it without dipping into unhappiness then

Judging by Ichabod's score increase, he's the one benefitting from this war so far

[yuris125]

Well, Nic didn't make any mistakes




Warrior is dead, he wasn't tempted by moving units closer to the city, and the Spear is still at full health. Also note that the notification showing the there was a unit in my territory shows a Spearman unit. Looks like he moved the Spear towards the city, saw the Archer, and moved back

I have to give up the city, there's no more way to hold it. Not without rushbuying at least, and I don't have the gold

On the bright side, now I finally can found that third city

We'll see what Nic does. He almost certainly will burn my city, it's small enough and there's no way to keep it profitably this early in the game. Perhaps I can re-settle the spot myself. I now have 2 archers, with another one popping out in 2 turns. Then I kind of need to switch to Settlers, but will depend on his moves

Moved the Archer to get a shot at the Spear. May have been a mistake - he's safe this turn, maybe will just take fire from 1 Archer. Next turn may be trickier though. But I really wanted to get damage on the Spear, to make Nic less inclined to continue the war after taking Tombouctu, or at least force him to spend a promotion on instaheal

[yuris125]

Possibly I should've given up the city last turn, moved the Archer to where he is now and shot at the Spear, keeping the Warrior behind the city still. Then then if Nic moved in to take it I would've had a chance to take it back with Archer + Warrior. Doubt it would've been enough though. The Archer definitely would've taken fire in this case as well

I Paint.Netted the image from the previous turn to demonstrate this manoeuvre. Imagine my units are positioned as shown below, and Nic's Spear is damaged to 70hp (as it is after the shots this turn)




Archers from the hills, highlighted in red, shoot at the city. The Archer in front of the city, highlighted in green, needs to get out of the way. As Nic sees my Archer, the move is likely as shown. Then the Spear takes the city (which should be at 0hp after 2 shots, so the Spear would take little if any additional damage). Then the Archer highlighted in blue moves and shoots at my Archer

Seeing how much damage Nic's Archers were dealing to the city, and a city captured in ancient era has half its hitpoints after capture, I don't think Archer + Warrior would've been anywhere near enough to retake it. And if I tried, Archer would've been in range of 2 shots, so would've died almost certainly, for pretty much now gain

Pity I can't sandbox it. But I strongly suspect the move I made, trading my Warrior for Nic's Archer and a chance of getting another turn, was the best option I had

[yuris125]

Nic kept the city. Unexpected. Doubt a size 1 puppet is worthwhile

Also, I keep unhappiness from the number of cities even after losing one? Didn't know that. Annoying to say the least

[T-hawk]

Nic kept the city. Unexpected. Doubt a size 1 puppet is worthwhile

Razing doesn't happen instantly, it subtracts 1 pop per turn, so not sure if you know for sure what he chose yet.

Also, I keep unhappiness from the number of cities even after losing one? Didn't know that. Annoying to say the least

Sort of. All the per-city penalties (policy cost, tech cost, happy) are figured from the maximum city count you've ever had. So the next city you found after losing Tombouctu basically replaces Tombouctu rather than incurring more penalty of its own.

[yuris125]

Razing doesn't happen instantly, it subtracts 1 pop per turn, so not sure if you know for sure what he chose yet.

The icon under the city name should show its status - at the moment it's showing its status, there also are icons for "occupied" and "burning". Of course, in Civ5 Nic can change his mind and raze it at any point

Sort of.  All the per-city penalties (policy cost, tech cost, happy) are figured from the maximum city count you've ever had.  So the next city you found after losing Tombouctu basically replaces Tombouctu rather than incurring more penalty of its own.

Thanks! All the more reasons to get a new Settler out after the next Archer. Assuming I can afford it

[GreyWolf]

This is more interesting than I imagined Civ 5 to be... maybe I should try it too, someday 

[yuris125]

My wounded Archer died. That shot I took a the Spear was a mistake after all. It was a safe shot to take on that turn, but I didn't properly plan movements for the following couple of turns - my Archer couldn't run away

This is more interesting than I imagined Civ 5 to be... maybe I should try it too, someday 

Civ5 is not such a bad game, although it's most fun against competent opponents in MP, and lack of worldbuilder means that it's hard to play MP on custom maps. But I have well over 700 hours on Steam, so it can't be too bad

[yuris125]

He's coming, part 2

Apparently I didn't take the screenshot at the start of the turn. Was sure I did. Only have the one after my moves




Basically he lined up his Archers along the river, attacking them now would likely cause me to lose more units, just because he has more Archers to shoot at me. So I moved back, onto rough terrain. If he wants to cross, he can be my (and my Archers') guest. With yet another Archer finishing in the capital next turn, my unit disadvantage is close to disappearing. So hopefully - hopefully! - I won't lose anything else. Just want to go back to Settler production